Mac The Knife - Blood of My Blood - Music Video

Quiet city streets are suddenly interrupted by punk rock band Mac the Knife. Grandma’s peek over their white picket fences as a singer wearing thick eyeliner walks down the street and belts out lyrics to “Blood of My Blood”. What are they doing? They are shooting a music video. 

We spoke with Bryn Chapman Parish — Actor, Lead Singer & now Director to chat about shooting the “Blood of My Blood” music video. Between his busy schedule of gigs and shoots we were able to chat to Bryn and gain an honest insight into the blood, sweat, tears (and some fake blood) that went into the clip. I’ve felt the energy of a Mac the Knife live show, and this clip has the same blood running through it.

Who is the Mac the Knife?

Mac the Knife are Bryn Chapman Parish, Curtis VanHaasteren, Jonny Sandstrom, Anthony Delorenzo and Gerry Thompson. Just a coupla crazy kids tryna make it in the big bad world of punk rock.

Tell us about the concepts of Blood of my Blood, how it influenced the music video and what you're trying to highlight conceptually?

Blood of My Blood is about carrying the weight of an uncovered secret with you, and how it can permeate and change your day to day life. And what happens if you put it down? I wanted the clip to be a blend of narrative driven scenes and image based sequences that reflected that story.

How do you want the audience to feel after watching?

I want the viewer to feel that any weight they are carrying, will be lighter once it's been faced. 

Indie filmmaking is a tricky thing to pull off, tell us about the process of making this clip?

We were so lucky with the team we had. My co-director/producer Mikey is the biggest bloody multi talented legend, and Cal our cinematographer is an absolute WIZARD, as is his 1st AC Christine, we couldn't have done it without them. Shout out as well to our amazing one man makeup team Dan and our fab runner George. We had a shoestring budget, so we made everything DIY, from the blood made of coffee & strawberry syrup to the sandwiches, to borrowing a tug of war rope from my local primary school (Thankyou Maddie & Kids Cottage). But creating things within restrictions has a beauty to it. It means you just have to work with what you've got. We shot it all in a day, and we had to skip some shots to make time for others, but I think that led to a more unique and interesting final product to edit. 

What was the music video inspired by aesthetically? 

I was super inspired by the Safdie brothers' cinematography and colour palette, which I think comes through nicely in the final product.  I wanted long Coppola style 70s zooms, and a hyper saturated film look, which Cal smashed out of the park with the grade. It just creates such a sense of drama and energy that I'm obsessed with. 

Somehow you've managed to give the music video a similar energy to a MTK live performance, how do you think you've achieved this?

Our performances really thrive off our energy as a group. The whole band was there on the day helping out in every role imaginable and giving us ideas, so it really helped raise the energy. It took a bit of prodding from Mikey for me to start settling in and really going for it on the singing takes, yelling a song on a quiet Chippendale street at 10am is a bit confronting, but we got there in the end.

For you personally this is a great cross section of your crafts - filmmaking, acting & music. How did these simultaneous parts play out? 

I’ve always maintained that all those different crafts bleed into one another and build off each other, and this experience really solidified that for me. I've never directed before, so working on my own project and developing the concept alongside Mikey was just such a dream. I was nervous about making sure the performance was hitting the right notes, but having Mikey, Cal and my partner Laura as external eyes to watch the monitor, and having a really strong vision of what I wanted meant that we got most of the shots nailed in one or two takes. 

This clip feels like an extension of the evolving Mac The Knife story both aesthetically & sonically, what's next?

Yeah man, it really feels like the Mac the Knife that I’ve been wanting to unleash on the world is finally taking shape. Our next single “Curb My Bite” will be released at the end of August, followed by our E.P in the latter part of the year, so things are ramping up. I’m so excited to show everyone what we’ve been working on together. 

Full Music Video Credits:
Directors Bryn Chapman Parish & Michael Kuhle
DOP & Colourist Calum Riddell
1st AC Christine Anderson
Producer Michael Kuhle
Editor Bryn Chapman Parish
Runner George Vickers-Willis
HMU Dan Tafeuni

Shot on an Alexa Mini with Zeiss Super Speeds and 25-250mm Angenieux Zoom 

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